People Story - Noura Ghoneim

Noura Ghoneim

Commercial Sales Executive, Cairo, Egypt

I came to SAP as a butterfly and I became a kite.

Noura Ghoneim
Commercial Sales Executive
Cairo, Egypt

At SAP, we believe that when you bring everything you are, you can become everything you want.

Noura Ghoneim is a rising Commercial Sales Executive at SAP. Thanks to her international experience, her transition into SAP was a smooth one. But don’t be fooled just by her work qualifications – she is also an avid kickboxer! We wanted to find out a little bit more about her journey at SAP and what success means to her professionally and personally.

Tell us a little bit about your background: Where are you from, where you grew up, where are you based?

I’m from Cairo, Egypt. I was born here and spent most of my childhood traveling with my family. I traveled with my family as a part of my mother’s job. She’s a diplomat handling all the press related to Egypt in the country she was assigned to abroad. We used to travel every four years. I’ve lived in Canada for four years and in Belgium for another four years. I went to the German University in Cairo because it’s one of the most renowned universities in Egypt. It also had the majors I was interested in studying, Human resources and Strategic Management, from which I graduated. And since I love languages, I took it as an additional opportunity to learn a bit of German.

I also worked in Qatar for six months right after I graduated. During my stay in Qatar, I worked in the HR field. I was a Training and Development Specialist at an engineering consultancy. I was responsible for facilitating internal and external trainings. I came back to Cairo and joined SAP in mid-July 2016 – and this is where I’m currently based.

How did you hear about SAP?

I heard about SAP on Facebook. A friend of mine from college posted a job vacancy looking for fluent French speakers, so I applied, and a few weeks later I was part of SAP family.

What made you decide to apply for a job at SAP?

SAP’s values, strong belief in diversity, and its vision is what mainly attracted me. I like that we all belong to one big entity. There’s this sense of belonging that you only feel here. There’s a lot of diversity, but at the end of the day, we’re all here for the same purpose: to help the world run better and improve people’s lives.

When you applied for the role at SAP, was it your current role?

No. When I first applied at SAP, it was for a role in the Education team. I was responsible for selling courses to French-speaking areas, mainly France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Now, I’m a Commercial Sales Executive, responsible for selling the BusinessOne solution in the UAE. For me, commercial sales was very attractive because I knew I wanted to work with both customers and partners. Sure, it can be very stressful at times, but at the end of the day, it’s definitely rewarding!

Tell us a little bit more about your life outside of work.

Apart from being a Sales Account Executive at SAP, I’m also an assistant coach in kickboxing. I go 4 times a week. I try to find time to train myself as well. But I always dedicate my weekends to my family and friends – while managing to get some reading in there for myself too!

What does success mean to you?

Success, for me, isn’t measured through superficial metrics such as money. Rather, I believe success is measured through the positive impact you have on the lives of others. Let’s take the internet for example: think about what the founders of the internet brought to the world, or the teams who are revolutionizing technology and simultaneously touching lives. That is how I define success. It means leaving the world a little bit better because I was here. SAP is definitely directing me every day to success. By allowing me to help organizations run better and grow, and consequently having a positive impact on their surroundings and the world.

Can you describe the photos you selected for your mosaic?

My choice of photos was mainly revolving around the themes of cheerfulness and hope.

What was your best moment working at SAP?

One of my best moments at SAP was having my very first customer sign and close a deal. It felt personally fulfilling. I had worked on it from scratch; from qualifying the lead itself at the beginning until finally closing the deal with the customer. I was so happy I couldn’t wait to tell my manager about it. Although it’s something natural for a salesperson to close deals at SAP, I bet every salesperson remembers well closing their first deal.

If you could relive anything during your time at SAP so far, what would it be?

I’d really want to relive my four weeks at the SAP Sales Academy in California. It was so much fun and extremely educative. I definitely consider myself lucky to be part of that.

If you had a message that you could get out to potential candidates thinking about joining SAP, what would it be?

Educate yourself. When you encounter a question about a certain topic, research it. Watch movies and documentaries. When something sparks your interest, read about it. Read, read, and read some more. Study, learn, stimulate your brain. Educate that beautiful, brilliant mind of yours!

And finally, what’s the one word you would use to describe your job at SAP?

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